I have sinned against you and God in thought, word, and deed—even more so, in the brutal absence of these on your behalf.

Where words of fierce solidarity were desperately needed, I have been cowardly silent and withdrawn. Where you have been crying out to simply be heard, bestowed justice, and afforded basic human rights, I have been tone-policing your every move while sitting in the comfort of my white Christian couch, staring down my nose at your plight.

My ignorance to my own white privilege, my apathy to your suffering, my comfort in comfortable living, and the worship of my status—all complicit evils to the undeniable hell you have been living.

History tells the disturbing and diabolical tale, I am the reason for your slavery, your continued discrimination, and your unending quest to grasp what God has already bestowed upon you—equal value, capacity, dignity, and worth in every way and in all things.

For I have declared peace where this is no peace—to your destruction and my shame.

I have highjacked Jesus and turned Him into my personal cruise director, sipping Christian cocktails while the conservative evangelical Titanic plows through and pollutes from sea to shining sea spewing out hatred, bigotry, racism, and greed—especially towards you and every minority—the LGBTQIA community, the impoverished, and the immigrant included.

At times, I have assumed the worst in you while blatantly dismissing the obvious systematic and intended desire within significant segments of my faith and country to erase you.

I have not resisted nearly to the needed measure, but rather have even participated in a faith system that has been the source of more discrimination, abuse, and destruction of your being and community than perhaps any other racist evil manifestation on earth.

I have become the onward Christian soldier who pierces your side as you hang on racial crosses.

I have blindly turned my brain, conscience, soul, and mind off at church and in society—numbed and satisfied with only having, at best, a passing knowledge and compassion for your history, story, suffering, divine worth, and life experience.

My shrinking back at the Thanksgiving table, the church picnic, the office water cooler, the Facebook comment thread, and the sideline at soccer practice. My carting off the kids to schools where diversity in status, intellectual intelligence, emotional intelligence, and color of skin is subtly but surely discouraged. My laziness and chilling absence in being an active force for equality in the public arena with my words, my votes, and my resistance. All, scream of my resounding confession—I am the reason for your living hell. Charlottesville, just another page in the nightmares of your story.

When you were thirsty for equality, I was watering and walling-off my privilege.

When you were naked and vulnerable as a despised minority, I looked away sitting on my hands, and therefore exploited you and raped you of your humanity.

When you were hungry to create a world where all are given equal value, opportunity, freedom, and worth, my irresponsiveness and complacency stole from the table of your divine affirmation and significance in order to fatten my own.

I am appalled at myself as I come face to face with the control I have surrendered, the indoctrination I have allowed, and the contamination I have embraced through the spiritual justification of hate spewing out of the sewers of America, largely from the toilets of right-wing, conservative Evangelical Christianity.

I repent and agree with God—until my voice and actions of non-violent solidarity are as loud, numerous, and desperate as the cries of your oppression, I have deeply failed in being Jesus, living His Gospel, and extending His Kingdom to you.

For Jesus did not consider His heavenly privilege with God as something to be used to His own advantage. Rather, He made Himself a minority by taking the very natureof the religiously oppressed, being made in true human likeness and meekness. And being found in appearance as humanity, He humbled Himself, standing in fierce solidarity with the least of these unto death—even death on a cross.

As Jesus has done for me, I will do also for you. We are all equal, affirmed, and loved in His sight—period, end of all debates.

Black America, my heart is sickened to the core at the evil racism I have allowed and therefore have adopted as my own.

For I am white, I am Christian, I am the problem, and I am deeply sorry.

8 Comments

Note From Chris Kratzer: I have allowed this disturbing comment (below) to be posted as an example of the terrible racism and white supremacy we face. I have not edited it in any way, it is a direct use of the original words of my article for the purpose of spreading hate, bigotry, and racism. We must resist and reject this, especially we who are white. -Chris Kratzer

—————————————————————————————————————

The Apology Every Black American Needs To Give To White America, Now

I am black, I might be Christian, I might be Pagan, I might be Muslim, I am the problem, andI an sorry.

I have sinned against you and God in thought, word, and deed—even more so, in the brutal and deliberate rejection of these on your behalf.

Where words of fierce solidarity were desperately needed, I have been strategically silent about your more then a century of Christian sacrifice and benevolence. Instead I have been a constant voice of victimhood, accusation and complaint.

Where you have been crying out with open arms and providing unlimited access to housing, food and benefits, I have not demonstrated even a little gratitude by applying myself and taking advantage of these opportunities. But instead I have been the social archeologist never allowing the wounds of past generations to heal.

Your continued compassion which has allowed my race to exploit my standing and perpetuate a culture of victimhood created a closed loop. Always dissatisfied, never quenched, always a victim, never the victor. By design.

Your continued attention to my community’s needs created a dependent class, with a whole new generation of problems that we then blamed on you.

Rather than teach our children about the blessings afforded to our people because of the common struggles we as a Nation endured to conquer slavery, and share the truth that 600,000 white Americans died in a war to abolish slavery and to confirm that all men were created equal.

Rather than teach our children that over riding truth, I’ve poisoned generation after generation with the lie that whites are racist and that they are oppressed, when it’s really just a strategy to manipulate the system.

History tells the encouraging and glorious tale, you are the reason that the largest population of blacks in the world, are the wealthiest, healthiest, most educated, best housed, most entertained, in the history of mankind.

You have been patient in your willingness to share that in order for a people, any people, of any color, any religion and any race, to be virtuous they must unite with a positive outlook on the future embracing the common goal of equal value, capacity, dignity, and worth in every way and in all things. And then walk in that calling.

For you have declared peace, and we’ve rejected peace because it would require us to love you. And that doesn’t fit our narrative.

We’ve bred contempt for you and ourselves into our children so they’ven lost all hope. We’ve jaundiced them so they hate the system, and now that they live in a world that by design and definition has an adversarial posture, our children kill each other at war zone like rates, and rather than face the issue and take responsibility, we don’t, because it fits perfectly into our victim narrative. And so, we blame you for our children killing each other.

I have hijacked virtue by inventing terms that perpetuate my victimhood. We’ve cried for urban renewal and investment in our communities, and when the neighborhoods are radically improved and renewed, we cry “gentrification”.

We cry that we’re not really accepted into the culture, then when we radically influenced fashion, art & music so you wasn’t to emulate it, we cry “cultural appropriation”.

All playing to the victim narrative too exploit your compassion.

I have lived nearly my whole life never experiencing real racism, but I’ve made sure to be offended at evey opportunity to use normal cultural differences as an excuse to accuse you of being racist.

At times, I have assumed the worst in you while blatantly dismissing the obvious hypocrisy and intended desire within significant segments of my community to hate snd exploit you, knowing I can always label you racist and frame the conversation away from the real issue.

I have not resisted nearly to the needed measure, but rather have even participated in a world view that has been the source of more destructive behavior, rejection of the tiller of law, and destruction of your peaceful and accepting community than perhaps any other racist evil manifestation on earth.

I have become the militant
onward Christian soldier who exploits my own victimhood in spite of the willingness to embrace our culture, pour trillions in aid, services and support, into our community to stop the downward cycle our culture breeds.

I have blindly turned my brain, conscience, soul, and mind off at church and in society—numbed and satisfied with living in the past, exploiting snd reliving a history that USD long past, solely because it serves my story.

I also can never considered myself as truly equal because then I would have to care, contribute and make myself a responsible citizen, and make America’s greatness my responsibility, and that also wouldn’t serve my victim narrate.

I am the reason, a small, angry insignificant group of racists, who had a rally, escalated to a fevered pitch where something had to give. I have shown that the rules of society don’t matter to me. We shout down everyone else’s argument. It plays to our victim narrative.

I am the reason for your living hell. Charlottesville, is just another page in the nightmares of our story.

When you were thirsty for equality, I was watering and walling-off my victimhood. Keep your equality, we’d rather be victims. Equality means the responsibility to self determine.

When you were hungry to create a world where all are given equal value, opportunity, freedom, and worth, by passing three civil rights act, which was the largest transfer of wealth from one class to another inn the history of the world, my irresponsiveness and complacency stole from the table of your divine affirmation in order to fatten my own. We squandered generations of opportunity in victimhood.

I am appalled at myself as I come face to face with the control I have surrendered, the indoctrination I have allowed, and the contamination I have embraced through the spiritual justification of hate spewing out of the sewers of America, largely from the toilets of Liberation Theology influenced Cultural Marxism.

I repent and agree with God—until my voice and actions of non-violent solidarity are as loud, numerous, and desperate as the cries of your benevolence, I have deeply failed in being Jesus, living His Gospel, and embracing His Kingdom with you.

For Jesus did not consider His heavenly privilege with God as something to be used to His own advantage. Rather, He made Himself a minority by taking the very nature of the religiously oppressed, being made in true human likeness and meekness. And being found in appearance as humanity, He humbled Himself, standing in fierce solidarity with the least of these unto death—even death on a cross.

As Jesus has done for me, I will do also for you. We are all equal, affirmed, and loved in His sight—period, end of all debates.

White America, my heart is sickened to the core at the evil racism I have allowed and therefore have adopted as my own.

For I am black, I might be Christian, Pagan or Muslim, I am the problem, and I am deeply sorry.

Wow, James Damore, since you got fired from Google you’ve been a busy little man. How about you take these writings and the other, make an appointment with a psychologist, and figure out why you are so lonely, jealous and afraid. Be brave, now.

I think that the initial article and this response, if you are capable of entertaining views that are different than yours, provide really rich perspective. I don’t agree with everything in both articles. I also learned a perspective I wasn’t seeing from both articles.

One thing I do think, however, is that the combination of articles illustrates why Jesus really came. The Bible (Eph. 2:1-10), says that we are objects of God’s wrath. We are dead in sin. While we are all human beings made in God’s image, we don’t honor God or obey His commands toward our neighbor. So, God, who is perfectly good and loving, instead of destroying us in eternal hell, which we deserve offered His Son to pay the penalty for our sins. We all like sheep have gone astray – black, white, male, female, republican, democrat – each of us to our own way, but God has laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. We’d rather accuse one another of supporting Nazis or Communists rather than ACTUALLY love our enemies. It’s just easier than the messiness of listening to someone else, tolerating a view without necessarily accepting it, and figuring out how to reconcile with others. We still have that issue from the Garden. We’d rather be God and have Him and the rest of the world submit to us rather than submit to the King.

Dear person who found the courage to apologize on behalf of the blacks, I look forward to more of your writing! Please continue to apologize on behalf of others! I especially look forward to your apology on behalf of Anne Frank to the hard-working and decent members of the National Socialist Party of Germany. Similarly, an apology to Jeffrey Dahmer on behalf of Konerak Sinthasomphone will not be in poor taste at all. Peace!

This would be an interesting and heartfelt read if the title wasn’t “every white Christian needs to do this now. ”

First off, he puts himself in a place where he’s saying he did something superior so it’s like he’s patting himself on the back (Which makes the whole thing feel very insincere) and secondly, many of us work on our social awarenesses just as much as our “Christianity”.

I agree with this reply too. If you’re going to condemn the person that apologized on behalf of blacks for not truly being or representing blacks, condemnation should also be issued to the person that exploits Jesus’ purposes for mere political means (By saying this, I dont desire either person condemned. I’m just pointing out inconsistency. The author of the original article doesn’t represent me or my beliefs as a Christian). Jesus did come as a poor minority in an oppressed country. But to limit His ministry to some mere political achievement is to miss the point and to make Jesus a poster-child for a particular political perspective. Jesus came so that people – who love to jab each other – could be redeemed from the death we deserve for our heartfelt meanness to one another and failure to honor God. He offers us forgiveness of sins through His death and right-standing with God through His life. Actually, Jesus solves the human condition, a corrupt heart. He asks us appeal to God for forgiveness through the just penalty for sin paid by Him at the cross. Through trust in His death and resurrection, we receive a new Spirit and a new nature that desires to please God. And that’s not to say that all people who label themselves Christians have the Spirit. For, the Bible warns that false prophets will arise among us (Christians) and that the true Christians are known by their fruits – love for Jesus, His Word, and the church. Christians know that all people fall short of the glory of God. We do not use Jesus to achieve political ends in this world now, but we point all people to Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus will return and achieve His political purposes – the destruction of all who reject God and continue in evil. The glory of God will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. That’s why true Christians don’t have to get bent out of shape when the world seems jacked up or when people – republicans and democrats alike – can’t seem to work things out. That’s what having a sin nature is. We know what we should do, but don’t do it. Jesus came to redeem a jacked up world. We don’t advance the kingdom by physical political power. Jesus will establish the kingdom when He comes. We call Christians to repent and be subjects of the kingdom of God. The church is an outpost of Christ’s kingdom until He comes. Our hopes are not of this world. We consider everything of this world a loss compared with the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. (Philippians 3:1-11)

I don’t mind the apology. I don’t mind the thought, it’s a nice thought that Christians should speak up more.
I mind being told that as a White Christian I have been silent, when I have not. Just because you have white guilt doesn’t mean that I do. I do everything I can to uplift the poor, the forgotten, and the outsider. I’m an outsider myself, in the Christian community, and in the world for being a Christian who thinks Christ’s best ideas aren’t preached about. I’ve been to megachurches with coffee bars and bookstores. I’ve been to hole in the wall churches. So what? I’m impressed people still seek God. Seeking God is not something that anyone should be sorry for. As to the color of my skin, I make it pretty clear how sorry I am to share a skin color with certain unpleasant people. I’m not ashamed of myself though. I don’t hate myself for being in an oppressive race. That’s not productive. We need to come together, that would be more productive than endless rants about how we should feel. Feelings are fleeting, in a few hours I won’t remember having the ones this article brought up. God bless.